Ilya Muromets (Cataphract Hero Mech) 3x UAC5 Guide

With the recent buff to UltraAC5s, this build has become even more fearsome than it was before. An Ilya Muromets armed with 3x UAC5s, and 2x Medium Laser is a beast. This Cataphract destroys Assault Mechs in seconds. You will have no trouble at all melting through the center torsos of your enemies, hence the nickname “Chainsaw”. The build is reasonably heat efficient and has enough ammo to pump out more than 1,000 damage per match. The only downside is your exposed front, carrying an XL-engine.

The first version of the build is the most offensive one. This is the maximum possible amount of ammo you can carry. Kaffeangst, myself, and other friends of mine are running this version to great success. 7 kills and 800 damage are no rare sight. However, this version of the Ilya Muromets Chainsaw build is not suited for absolute beginners. If you are new to the game or ballistic heavy builds, I do not recommend this version. You have to know what you are doing at all times and a reasonable level of teamwork, reflexes, and aiming is required.

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If you would like to play this build in more of a support role or a newer player, use the following version. It trades some ammo for a larger engine and the addition of AMS. The increased movement speed and the Anti-Missile-System allow you to make more mistakes and support your team, even if you are not destroying Mechs fulltime. Use this build if you see yourself more like a 2nd line of fire guy which sticks behind the large team and assists as necessary.

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Cataphract plus XL-engine is problematic. If you are eating carefully aimed sniper shoots, LRMs, or high frontal damage, you are done for. Whenever you are being hit by anything mentioned here, get to cover. Do not return fire. Also do not make the mistake to peak around the same corner a few seconds later. You will die a quick but horrible death and be no good to your team, because all that sweet ammo is smoldering in your corpse.

Since your weapons are firing from a very low point, you must expose yourself almost completely in order to fire properly. That being sad, you should always try to flank the enemy or fire at enemies who do not or can not return fire. The two Medium Lasers are mounted a bit higher, so when in doubt, use your lasers first.

Weapon grouping advice: 1) All three UltraAC5s 2) Both Medium Lasers. In addition, you can create weapon groups for chain firing the UAC5s, only the arm-mounted ones, or a group for left and right UACs to fire around corners without wasting ammo.

Ammo is precious and UltraAC5 ammo weighs a lot. Make every shoot count. If you are unsure whether or not you will hit the target, do not fire or use your lasers.

UltraAC5s are excellent weapons to scare off enemies. However, you want to kill enemies. If you can flank or sneak up on an enemy, wait until you have a clear shoot and hold that trigger down. Early hits will waste ammo and your opponent has more time to react.

Preferred control options are disabled arm-lock and holding down the weapon group which contains all three of your UltraAC5s. Only use the lasers on colder maps or if you are unsure you can hit properly.

Ilya Muromets (Cataphract Hero Mech) Dual Gauss Sniper Build

With the recent patch discouraging PPC and AC/20 boats, Cataphracts have been struggling to find new builds. If you are running you a 2X, you can build a brawler following this Cataphract 2X brawler guide. A more popular variant is the Ilya Muromets, the Hero Mech. A friend of mine at the Hell’s Black Aces Merc Corp showed me a build which has quickly become popular amongst competitive gamers. An Ilya Muromets build which is equipped with dual Gauss Rifles, Medium Lasers, and a Machine Gun. High alpha strikes, way above average dps and no heat issues what so ever make this Mech a fearsome opponent.

AMS + Machine Gun for critical hits and survivability

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Higher movement speed version with AMS

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Higher movement speed version without AMS but 3rd Medium Laser

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Cataphract plus XL-engine makes you very susceptible to frontal damage. If you come under heavy LRM, AC or PPC fire from the front, take cover immediately or you will die in seconds.

Always use your Gauss Rifles together. The pinpoint damage will make short work of what ever component you are targeting.

When at close range, keep those Medium Lasers and the Machine Gun fire buttons held down! It is almost impossible to overheat with this build.

Your damage output is easily focused on one point, and the damage per second at close surpasses most other builds currently in the game. If you are entangled in a brawl, keep firing all the time. Your enemies will most likely underestimate your firepower and only turn around, when it is already to late.

This build was brought to my attention by Smeg of the Hell’s Black Aces Merc Corp. Check out their web page!

Cataphract 2X Brawler Build

I am a great fan of the Cataphract chassis. I bought a 4X, 2X, and 1X right when they came out. However, the CTF-3D and the Hero Mech variant “Ilya Muromets” are much more popular. While those are really fun and powerful variants, I wanted to beat something with my 2X and 1X. So this guide came to life. See how a Cataphract 2X can easily deal as much damage as the more popular variants. People will only underestimate you until you blasted the second Assault Mech in their team to bits.

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This build features everything you need. The Cataphract 2X brawler build is like the whole family fun package. A Gauss Rifle for long range shots and in order to add critical pinpoint damage while brawling. It can also be used in the rare case of running on high heat. Three Medium Lasers will serve as your all-purpose weapons. Finally, double SRM6 will be your melee range blaster. The recent MWO patch buffed their damage even further. Note, that all screenshots where taken before this patch and the damage values were already insanely high. Especially when encountering Assault Mechs, the SRM6s will provide the critical damage needed to take them down quickly.

Although your Cataphract 2X is equipped with a Gauss Rifle, the most damage can be dealt at close range. Try to engage in brawls early on for maximum output.

This build is very heat efficient. Do not fear to fire all weapons at all times. In the rare case of running on high heat, continue firing your SRM6s and the Gauss Rifle only.

The combination of a Cataphract chassis and an XL-engine make you very susceptible to frontal attacks. Try to hug buildings, ledges, and cliffs at all times.

Note, that the following screenshots where taken before the recent buff to SRM damage. You should be able to easily reach or even surpass those numbers.

Please note:This guide may still be viable, but is very old. You will probably find better ones or will need to tweak a few things. In addition, some or all meta game information and play style/hints may include outdated information. As soon as an updated version is available, it will be shown here. If you have up-to-date information on how to improve this build, please leave a comment below. Thank you.

I am happy to provide you with a final guide for the regular Cataphract variants. A guy named Wrench from the official forums was kind enough to allow me to use the guide here. Be sure to check out his profile and the original thread in the official forums to drop him a like and thumbs up. Enjoy:

The Cataphract has been a staple of House Davion Lances since it’s construction. A dependable heavy mech that could be relied upon, and The Gershom, a -3D variant piloted by loyalist Nicholas Reffin was no exception. With a pair of fearsome AC10s, four medium lasers and an experimental XL290 engine, The Gershom was a classic design that saw it’s share of battles and always comported itself well on the field, bringing victory and honour to its pilot .But a mechwarrior is never completely satisfied.

While The Gershom was successful, Nicholas was always irritated by its limitations. The mech shouldered the vulnerability of the XL engine, but still moved at a mediocre speed. This sluggishness made close range confrontations unpleasant when the fighting moved in, especially against highly manoeuvrable mechs. This was only compounded by the mech’s inability to quickly dissipate heat. Temperature ratings rested in acceptable tolerances when lobbing shells at range, perhaps with sporadic use of the MLAS. But frequent firing of all four MLAS in a brawl situation had a tendency to build an uncomfortable amount of heat.Still, with limited resources, it was hard to justify any changes on a successful – if imperfect – mech. The Gershom was ran as a powerful, but conventional heavy support unit for some time. But in a changing time of war, more flexibility is desired from a heavy chassis. Flush with an unexpected source of income, Reffin demanded a complete overhaul of some of his older configurations from his engineering team. First among these refits was a project to expand the tactical flexibility of the Gershom.

After much deliberation and several rejected designs, the Gershom was completely striped and rebuilt over a matter of weeks. While unpopular with some, the decision was made to actually reduce the armament on the mech, replacing the dual AC10s with a pair of UAC5s. The argument was made that despite the drop in single shot punch, the rapid firing rate of the combined UAC5s, provided it was properly managed, could bring the total destructive power of the cannons to near parity with the AC10s; and in some use-cases actually exceed them. This fire power could be maintain while projecting a more suppressive effect on the battlefield, laying down a threatening barrage of shells rather than the sporadic hammering of the AC10s. This was though to be more in line with the Gershom’s expanded role as a more active direct fire support unit.

The lighter and more space efficient cannons made way for the upgraded XL320 engine. Capable of moving the large Cataphract at the more impressive speed of 74kph, the engine was further augmented by an additional heatsink over the old design, helping to alleviate what minor heat issues the Gershom had without losing any of the four medium lasers.

However, the most extensive augmentation to the mech’s design was the rebuilding of the internal structural using the new weight efficient Endo-Steel technology and addition of 4 class-III jump jets. While bulky, the new lighter frame brought the mech just in line with the proper tonnage to thrust ratio needed to make the jets worth while.

While the Gershom will never exactly soar over the battlefield, the jump jets give the mech a decent amount of vertical and horizontal movement. This aerial mobility combined with the mech’s higher top speed allow for a much greater range of tactical options. Whether using the jets to reach a high vantage point to fire a storm of UAC5 rounds down on an enemy, to escape an unfavourable engagement, or to short-cut and overtake a fleeing enemy, the jump-jets are a constant surprise to the Gershom’s foes in the field.

The Gershom’s remaining limitations mostly centre around it’s shallow ammunition stores, 100 UAC5 rounds can be used up quickly in an engagement of even moderate length. The XL engine is a constant source of vexation and due concern in the broad chested Cataphract, requiring constant awareness of the mech’s torso condition.

This build provides a short description of a nice CTF-2X brawler build with relatively high damage output (whooping 50 alpha strike) while still maintaining a very nice heat efficiency to fight for extended periods of time. Long range combat is not recommended but you will still be able to harass over long distances with an Ultra AC/5.

CTF-2X SRM6 Brawler

Cataphract CTF-2X

XL Engine 255

Max Armor except legs (~51 each)

3x Medium Laser

1x Ultra AC/5 (~2x ammo)

2x SRM 6 (~3x ammo)

1x Anti-Missile-System (1x ammo)

Despite being a heavy and having a considerable amount of armor: play save, do not lead the charge. Use the increased speed from the engine to outmaneuver your opponents.

You will be an easy victim for LRM boats despite having an AMS and driving a heavy chassis. Try to avoid open spaces at all times.

If you spot enemies at the horizon, use heat vision (hotkey H) and zoom (hotkey Z) and place some single UltraAC/5 hits. Most enemies will duck behind cover and cease to or not even open fire.

If you are not proficient with SRMs, yet, set your SRM6s weapon group to chain fire (hotkey BACKSPACE) and fire single bursts. If you want to fire both missiles at the same time, double tap the weapon group´s hotkey.

Remember that you can use your mouse cursor (yellow circle) to aim your SRM6s.

Please note:This guide may still be viable, but is very old. You will probably find better ones or will need to tweak a few things. In addition, some or all meta game information and play style/hints may include outdated information. As soon as an updated version is available, it will be shown here. If you have up-to-date information on how to improve this build, please leave a comment below. Thank you.

The Cataphract CTF-1x offers 5 energy slots (and one ballistic slot). It will occur to most people to use some mixture of a smaller ballistic weapon (UAC5, AC5, AC10, LB10X) and multiple Large Lasers. However, if you don´t need the range and just want to dish out loads of damage with ease, a Medium Laser centered build usually brings nicer results in regards to the endgame screen. This build provides a successfully tested allround build with an emphasis on high damage dealt utilizing Medium Lasers and a complementary Gauss Rifle as a heat efficient secondary weapon.

CTF-1X Build Overview

Cataphract CTF-1X

XL Engine 255

Max Armor except legs (~39 each) and cockpit (~10)

5x Medium Laser

1x Gauss Rifle (~4x ammo)

1x Anti-Missile-System (1x ammo)

Despite being a heavy and having a considerable amount of armor: play save, do not lead the charge. Use the increased speed from the engine to outmaneuver your opponents.

If you find your Gauss Rifle destroyed a lot before you can use up all the ammo, remove 1-3 ammo and replace them with heat sinks.

If you are at high heat levels, do NOT fire your lasers again and overheat. Instead, fire your Gauss Rifle which produces almost no heat.

If you overheat and face a strong but slow opponent (Atlas, Stalker, other heavys oder assaults), do the following: override shutdown immediately (hotkey “o”), do not fire, and run for it. Take the fight back to them if you are behind something solid and recovered.

Please note:This guide may still be viable, but is very old. You will probably find better ones or will need to tweak a few things. In addition, some or all meta game information and play style/hints may include outdated information. As soon as an updated version is available, it will be shown here. If you have up-to-date information on how to improve this build, please leave a comment below. Thank you.

With the latest patch from November 20th a new heavy mech has been deployed to the field: the Cataphract! One of the most appealing variants is the CTF-4X due to its four (4(!)) ballistic slots. Now lets see what one can do with this:

The Build:

Cataphract CTF-4X

Standard Engine 210

Endo Steel Structure

Double Heat Sinks (~13)

Maxed Armor

Armament:

4x AC/2 Autocannon

2x Medium Laser

8x AC/2 ammo (put 4 in legs and 4 in torso protected with CASE)

Playstyle and Tips:

The ammo is very expensive so try to work with auto 75% rearm (turn auto-ream off and launch into new match).

Do not brawl first row. If you get caught in a melee fight with an Atlas you will likely lose. Try to stay in the 2nd row or keep at least 200+ distance.

If you find a Gausspult (Catapult armed with 2x Gauss Rifles) fire at it! The screen shaking from 4x AC/2 will ensure that the Gausscat cannot aim properly and will be rendered useless.

Only fire your lasers when encountering light mechs or when you have run out of ammo.

Set weapons to alternating (by pressing BACKSPACE) to maximize fun for yourself and screenshaking for your foes.

If you find yourself overheating a lot, try to fire in short bursts rather than holding down the trigger.